Platform 9 ¾ was bustling with excited children and young people and their smiling parents, all checking to be sure they had everything they needed for school. One small boy had lost his frog, and he was crawling along the ground, around people's feet, over their toes, between their legs as they walked, all in his search for his beloved pet. A little girl was clinging to her older sister's jumper and crying, asking when she would be old enough to "Go wif sissy to hogwurz?" And nearby, a group of teenagers were huddled together, talking over how they could best cause trouble at school that year. Everyone was busy talking to someone or getting his or her things into order before they boarded the train.

Parents and children alike turned to stare when a family of five entered the crowded platform. A tall man with shoulder-length black hair was leading the group, his cloak billowing behind him and his cold, flint-colored eyes sweeping the crowd in front of him just once. Everyone who looked at him felt a bit of a chill run down their spine at the sight of him, and the younger children subconsciously moved closer to their parents or siblings when his gaze moved over them. Kids who were returning to Hogwarts that year knew how strict a teacher this man was, but even as they disliked him, they respected him.

While the crowd was chilled and even the adults there felt a bit of a nervous thrill run through them at the sight of Severus Snape, his family seemed completely oblivious to his cold, dark appearance. All the crowd had seen at first was the potions master, but when they looked beyond his frighteningly cold face, they saw something much warmer and brighter.

Walking close beside him was a beautiful young woman who looked to be in her early twenties. Cradled in her arms was a little girl, her youngest daughter. Seated on Snape's shoulders, and clinging to his father's hair with a wide grin on his face, was the little girl's twin brother. And between the potion master and his wife, a girl of five walked, clinging to her father's hand. She was barely tall enough to stand where Snape's hand fell at his side, and she was holding one of his large fingers in her hand. She seemed to think nothing of her father's dark appearance and looked up at him with a loving gaze before taking another of his fingers in her other hand and pressing his hand to her cheek affectionately.

Not far behind the family another young woman, this one with fiery red hair, walked. She was the children's nanny, and she seemed just as unaffected by Snape's dark presence as his family was. The people watched, some of them whispering about the Snape family and how the two adults had fallen in love. Then the family and their nanny entered the train and disappeared from sight, and the crowded platform buzzed back to life again.

Inside the train, Draco Malfoy watched all of this as it happened. He turned and nodded to Severus as the older wizard and his family passed, and then Draco followed them. Severus opened the door to a compartment and let his wife and children and their nanny step inside before he joined them, and Draco followed, closing the door behind him. Draco had spent the train-ride to Hogwarts with the Snapes and Ginny every year since Lily's birth. He sat down and watched as Ginny—as he'd come to think of her after years of her being nanny to Severus and Hermione's children—took her seat beside him, across from Hermione. Severus sat beside his wife and reached up to take his son from his shoulders, setting the little boy on his lap. The boy's twin sister was seated in her mother's lap, while Lily had gone to sit beside Ginny.

The train would leave soon, and people began hugging their families goodbye before boarding and finding their seats. Draco was only momentarily distracted by this, but was aware of the moment that everyone had boarded and the train began to move. He shifted his attention back to the family in the compartment with him and looked on with interest as the people around him went about making themselves comfortable for the ride to the school.

He had last seen Lily and her siblings only that year, back when the school year had ended and the Snapes had left Hogwarts, but even just over the summer the children had all grown. Lily was six now, and her younger brother and sister were almost three. Lily had always looked more like Hermione that she did like Severus, but she definitely had her father's eyes. Her hair was already falling about her shoulders in bushy curls, and Draco was sure she would grow up to look almost exactly like her mother. She and Ginny were, at the moment, reading the Tales of Beedle the Bard and giggling over some story or another, though Draco wasn't sure because he hadn't been listening as they read.

He turned to look at Severus. Though the potion master was now in his mid-thirties, he was still looking well. His face remained wrinkle-free and he had yet to show signs of even a single gray hair to taint his ink-black head. His eyes were still bright and challenging as ever, cold and dark when he was angry or not in a pleasant mood, and a deep, melted brown when he was happy—which was only when he was with his wife or children. Draco knew that Hermione was good for Severus for many reasons, but he personally believed that she had taken away much of Severus' stress and soothed his self-loathing and horrid memories, resulting in his healthier living. The potion master seemed younger than he had been in years, and Draco thought it was because Severus no longer had so many terrible things on his mind. He looked better than Draco had ever seen him looking before.

Then Draco looked to Hermione. Her eyes were on her husband, and there was a brief look of adoration and affection on her face before she turned her attention back to the child on her lap. She was looking young and beautiful as ever. Yes, beautiful, as Draco had eventually been forced to admit to himself. And she looked truly happy, sitting there with her family.

Now Draco let his eyes rest on the little girl in Hermione's lap. Yes, Sofia. She had stolen the heart of each and every person she met just as quickly as Lily had. But when it came to appearance, Lily and Sofia were polar opposites. Though both had pale skin, Lily's hair was bushy and curly and light brown, while Sofia's was soft and straight and black as coal. Lily looked exactly like her mother, except for her eyes, and Sofia looked more like her father, though she had her mother's rounder, softer features, including Hermione's eyes. Sofia was currently quite busy playing with several of her mother's curls, and Draco smiled as he watched the little girl toying with Hermione's hair in wonder.

Finally, his eyes drifted to the little boy on Severus' lap. Everyone who knew very much about Severus and his past had been a bit more than shocked—to say the least—when Hermione had given birth to twins and they had announced the name of the boy. Everyone knew that Severus had hated his father, and the feeling was quite mutual, so all had been surprised and confused when Severus named his son Tobias. Draco was one of the few people who were close to both Severus and Hermione, and had gotten the full story on how they had decided to name their son. Apparently Severus eventually had, after Hermione showed him what true love was, forgiven his father for all of the terrible things he had done.

Then—as Hermione put it when she was speaking alone with Draco on the matter—Severus had taken one look at his son and called him Tobias, though he and Hermione had been planning on naming their baby something else if it was a boy. Hermione had privately told Draco that she was quite sure Severus had named his son Tobias because he saw a chance to raise another Tobias Snape, but do it the right way this time so that this Tobias was a good man and not a drunk.

And looking at the little boy now, Draco smiled; he couldn't imagine the child with any other name. Tobias just fit him perfectly. He was fair-skinned and pale, just like his sister, and looked much like their father, just as she did. He too had his mother's eyes, and he too looked more like his father than his mother, though he had inherited some of her finer, better features. He was a bit more like Severus than Sofia was, Draco thought, and obviously had a more boyish, distinctly masculine face, but Sofia and Tobias were like replicas of each other, only with a mirror effect because of their different genders.

As Draco watched, Tobias looked up to find his father looking away and reached up to tug gently on a fistful of Severus' hair. Severus returned his attention to his son immediately, and the boy seemed deeply satisfied simply because his father was looking at him.

Back in his years as a student at Hogwarts School, Draco had never imagined that he would someday be just as close to Hermione as Harry and Ron and Ginny were. But at the present, he was among Hermione's closest friends. It was something strange for him to ponder and think about, and it never really made any sense to him because he and Hermione had always been so different, and were still quite different to this day. But when they were together, talking or teaching or anything really, he found it was easy to be around her and he didn't have to pretend to be anyone else. She knew that he still had plenty of unhealed mental and emotional scars from the war, and she never expected him to act as if he knew how to cope.

She accepted him as he was, and was never hurt or offended when he lost his temper or made an unkind remark. And surprisingly enough, he found that she was also easy to talk to. She knew better than anyone how devastating the war had really been, and he could talk to her about the war or something that had happened without the need to spare her the more terrible details. She understood almost everything he felt most of the time, and when she didn't, she was respectful of his views and feelings. And she seemed infinitely patient, even when they were talking and she mentioned something that he was especially sensitive about, causing him to snap and say something cruel.

And since he had started teaching at Hogwarts and gotten to know Hermione and Severus better, Draco had been forced into close proximity with the Weasley family and Harry at times, but they weren't half as bad as he'd grown up thinking they were. Harry and Ginny didn't understand him the way Hermione did, but they were respectful and kind and the three of them never brought up his past, which he was grateful for.

Draco wasn't the only surprised one when Severus and Hermione had told him that they wanted him to be the godfather of the twins. At first he hadn't known what to think or how to react, but now he couldn't be happier; he loved Tobias and Sofia with all his heart. Granted, he loved Lily just as much, but as the twins' godfather he sort of had a claim on them. This connection to the Snape family had been something he didn't at first know how to handle, but was now completely comfortable with.

Everyone who met the Snape children was enchanted by them, especially the girls. And growing up at Hogwarts, with parents who were the Gryffindor Head of House and Slytherin Head of House, the children met every student at least once.

Severus and Hermione didn't have favorites among their children; they loved them all equally. But even then, Severus was just as enchanted—if not more so—than most people by his daughters. And Tobias was the youngest and the only boy, and he was the little boy Hermione had pictured having since she and Severus had first been married, so she doted on him. Likewise, Draco didn't have favorites, but loved them all.

A smile touched his lips when he thought back to when his mother had found out that he was the godfather of the Snape's youngest two children. She hadn't really known what to think or say. It had surprised them all when she came to visit her son during the school year once, and had even asked to meet Severus and Hermione and their family. She had been just as enchanted as everyone else by the Snape children and though she and Hermione had never been friends, she had grown to love Lily, Sofia and Tobias, just as her son did.

Draco was pulled back to the present and watched as Sofia wriggled free of her mother's arms and slid to the ground, toddling across the space in the compartment and making her way to him. She reached towards him and he lifted her into his lap, smiling down at her as she toyed with the sleeve of his robes. It didn't take long for Tobias to see his sister and he, too, deserted his parent for his godfather. Draco lifted him to sit on his other knee and was surprised when Lily scooted over so that she was sitting closer to him. She wrapped her small limbs around his arm and looked up into his face. "Will you read to us?" she asked quietly.

He smiled and looked to Ginny, who smiled back and nodded, handing him the book she'd been reading to Lily before. Draco turned to the next story and started to read. Sofia and Tobias wriggled around so they were facing the book, which had moving pictures in it, and Lily laid her head against his arm as he read.

Sitting there, Draco felt like he was really part of a family. His mother and father had done what they could under the circumstances, but this was something else. For the first time in his life, Draco knew he had found a place where he belonged. When he looked over the sleeping twins in his lap and the sighing little girl on his arm, he saw children he might have the chance to teach someday, and looking around at first Ginny, and then Severus and Hermione, he saw people who had found the place they belonged as well.

Wow, endings are hard. I hope this satisfies you all! For the longest time I couldn't decide where I wanted to have this part of the story take place and when exactly, and this morning while I was driving home it just sort of came to me! I wanted to have this part completely from a different perspective than either Severus or Hermione, and after some thinking, I chose Draco. He changed quite a bit throughout the story, and I thought it might be kind of cool to give him some closure as well as the Snapes. I hope you liked that!

Now for goodbyes, I guess. First of all I want to say that I can never, ever, ever thank you enough for reading my story. Every new reader, every follow, every favorite, every review; every single one means to much to me. When I wrote the first chapter of this story, I know only one thing: that I wanted to write a Snape/Hermione romance. That was it. I had no idea where I was going to take the story or even what was going to happen. And then I sat down and started typing and everything just sort of turned out. I knew I wanted them to face adversity, but I originally had absolutely no clue how they were going to fall for each other or what that adversity might be. And then it just happened and things popped into my head and after a little smoothing-out, they turned into an actual story.

This is the first real fanfiction I've ever written and the first one I've ever completed, and I have mixed feelings about completing it. On one hand, I'm relieved that it's finished and I know I don't have to worry about updating or writing new chapters. And on the other hand, I'm kind of sad because this is the end of this story. This turned out to be so much more than I ever imagined, and that's all because of you guys, the readers. So thank you, thank you, thank you.

I don't really have anything more to say, besides another huge THANK YOU SO VERY, VERY MUCH. Alright, I'm done now. I hope you enjoyed reading the story and coming along this crazy adventure with me as much as I enjoyed writing it! I love you all, forever. ~Taelr